Grass fed – no fuss – maximising meat from forage
2025 Bulls Now Available For Sale!
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- Theme for this edition -
Resilience Under Pressure
Welcome to the latest edition of the Phepson Angus newsletter…
Running a farming business can be challenging at the best of times but recent policy changes have turned the screw on many family farm businesses. When you look around it seems there are more threats coming from more angles all the time:
INHERITANCE TAX CHANGES
THE END OF SUBSIDY
ENVIRONMENTAL GRANTS DRYING UP
THE NEVERENDING FICTION OF COW METHANE BEING A PROBLEM
POLITICISATION OF LAND USE AND THE EROSION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS
Just to name a few!
It helps noone to look the other way and hope these challenges go away. We have to be
RESILIENT UNDER PRESSURE
At Phepson, we breed cattle that work for you
“We bought a bull from Phepson Angus as we wanted to shift our maternal line to a smaller more efficient cow, high fertility and easy calving. The bull we bought has delivered on everything we wanted. We will certainly be a repeat customer.”
Silas Hedley-Lawrence
FARMER AND REGENERATIVE CONSULTANT
RESILIENT UNDER PRESSURE
We've had to look seriously at the succession plans on our farm and after seemingly endless research and some good (and bad) advice, we can see a way forward now. On the cow methane front, we are fighting the untrue narrative at its source. Over the last few years, Oxford University has been the centre of a lot of incorrect information on the impact of cows on climate.
We know this isn’t true!
We at Phepson Angus will always fight to defend family farms and the benefits that our cows bring to wildlife, the wider countryside and human nutrition!
In January we were invited to the Oxford Union to debate the motion:
“This house believes that in order for agriculture to be truly sustainable we need MORE cows not fewer!”
We won!
Quote from the debate:
“Further research has shown that grass-fed beef is one of the few dietary sources for Vitamin D, B12 and Omega 3’s - vital for brain function. I recently saw that Oxford University no longer tops the ranking of UK universities...
- Maybe you should put beef back on the menu!”
You can watch the full debate on YouTube below:
The lesson for us is that when all this negative stuff is flowing around social media it can be good to vent but, for us at least, we feel better when we take action. We need to be:
Resilient Under Pressure - Just like our cows!
So how can we make our businesses more resilient to these threats and turn them into opportunities?
Innovation in Regenerative agriculture systems has given farmers a huge opportunity to make their suckler cow businesses more profitable than ever. The environmental benefits of these systems are well promoted but the cost savings are where these practices can really make a difference - especially with cattle prices so high - It's all about margins.
Selling a lot of bulls into the regenerative sector we speak to a lot of people who are either transitioning from a conventional suckler system to a more regenerative model or even introducing/re-introducing cattle to a farm for the first time in a long time. Time and again I see the same missed opportunities in terms of cost savings and therefore profitability.
So what are the 5 biggest missed opportunities people make with Regenerative Suckler cows?
Failing to take advantage of hybrid vigour (heterosis) in your sale calves.
Using a terminal sire on a maternal cow is an old idea that has somehow gone out of fashion in regenerative systems. So much marketing focuses on cows that can apparently do it all - Terminal, Maternal, Carcasse - you name it. It just doesn't work like that and you should be aware that you are giving up free gains.
Hybrid vigour on an F1 cross has been shown to consistently deliver 16% more growth FOR FREE. Within the Aberdeen Angus breed we are lucky to have a great degree of heterosis, meaning that there are completely different lines that can be used that are for practical purposes completely unrelated. The maternal lines that we breed bear little or no relation to the high-growth Angus bulls out there. Putting a high-growth Angus with extremely good (high accuracy) calving ease EBVs on your small maternal cow will help you run a smaller cow but still wean a similar size calf - JUST DON’T KEEP THE HEIFERS!
If your cow weighs 450kg instead of 900kg and she weans a calf almost as big as the 900kg then you are saving money. The higher energy costs of the bigger cow mean you will almost certainly have a lower fertility rate and heifer development will be far more expensive to get them to calve at 2 years old. So adding in the fertility rate drop - It's fair to assume you will wean the same KG of calves across the average. So where do you save? It's just much less feed to bring the same KG of calves. Half the weight doesn't mean half the feed though! It's more like 65% - That means you can keep another 45 cows for the same feed costs. At a 95% weaning rate that's another 42.75 calves @ say £1200 a head sold as Store cattle.
- An EXTRA £51,300.00 -
Failing to take advantage of hybrid vigour (heterosis) in your maternal line.
Again, this is an old idea whose time has come again. What if you could get that hybrid vigour in the calf and the Cow!!! - 16% twice sounds nice! Jeremy Buxton a regular customer of ours is doing exactly that with his Pedigree Hereford cows. He is using our foundation sire Kaiser through AI to breed Black and Red Baldy cows to produce the ideal suckler cow for regenerative systems.
It's a similar story over the pond. Darris Meitler of Meitler Cattle has been using the Principles of Jan Bonsma to select cattle for over 30 years.
See this YouTube video for more information on Dr Jan Bonsma and his work on cattle selection.
The Meitlers have one of the top maternal herds of Herefords bred for fertility and the same for their pedigree Angus herd. They then cross these two closed lines to give the benefits of the hybrid vigour (heterosis) to their customers instead of keeping it for themselves. They truly aim to serve the farming families that they provide breeding stock for.
So often in the pedigree cattle world the seed stock producers keep the benefits of “within breed” hybrid vigour for themselves. Using hybrid vigour to pump up growth figures (EBVs) means the customers don't get those benefits. The biggest benefits come from when a close-bred animal is bred to an unrelated breed.
However, hybrid cows that come from line-bred herds focused on fertility and longevity will create more fertile, longer-living cows for the commercial operator - If you have a herd of these then all you need is an easy-calving Angus terminal sire! (See above).
Kaiser, Senior Herd Sire
Semen straws available for UK and International export.
"Using Phepson Angus genetics gives me the confidence to leave well alone and let nature take its course"
Jeremy Buxton - Eveshill Farm
Breeding Black and Red Baldy breeding females from his Pedigree Hereford herd using our Foundation Sire Kaiser through Artificial Insemination (AI)
Straws Available from our Senior Herd Sire KAISER - Your opportunity to buy into our programme
Excellent producer of easy-calving, fertile, moderate females for grass production
Will reduce frame size while still maintaining commercial scale.
Extremely fertile Bull - producing over 1000 straws per jump on collection on several occasions (bulls usually produce 150 - 350 straw per jump)
Line bred 4 times to Champion Bull "Evesund of Dupplin" who was known as the "Great Fixer of Udders"
We find Kaiser will correct poor udder structure in the 1st cross/generation
Huge rumen capacity - weighs 1000kg in working clothes - 53 inches at the hip
Kaiser is the foundation of our maternal bull lines, and is now available to you
Semen straws and genetics available for UK and International export.
Contact Rob or Lizzie for an order form.
Rob - 07973771832
Lizzie - 07799127066
Starter Herd Available -
Would you like to join our group of breeders using grass-based genetics?
Contact us for more information
“We bought a starter herd from Rob at Phepson Angus and we couldn’t be happier with them. They have settled into our outwintered grass-fed system perfectly, calved really well and Rob has already been back to buy youngstock to sell as breeding bulls.”
Ian Horsley
Baston Hall Farm
So what are the 5 biggest missed opportunities people make with Regenerative Suckler cows?
Guarding the machinery fleet!
If you are going to go to the trouble of changing over to a regenerative grazing system then it seems a shame not to reap all the cost-saving benefits that come with that.
If you are going to continue with the high input costs of a conventional operation then why would you then not chase the higher output system to cover those higher costs?
Feels nice to have 3 tractors rather than one (and you have to have a telehandler too) - the dealer said that fancy automatic bale unroller on the front-end loader was a bargain never to be had again - The muck-spreader owes you nothing, after all it's been a good servant - It's amazing how high maintenance and repair costs can get! What if you sunk that capital into more (smaller) cows - an actual productive asset?? Or invested it into future cost savings?
Keeping a few big cows
This is one I’ve been guilty of. For us; “beautiful is as beautiful does” and so this means that we have ended up keeping bigger cows that are producing a calf every year in our system. Why wouldn’t you do that? I hear you ask. Here’s the thing - We find these big cows that perform in a very low input system to be outliers that don’t replace themselves. They work - but their daughters don’t.
Instead of trying to get a bull out of them to make more like them, we will put a moderate maternal bull on them to make their heifers smaller and we then find these females work well.
Over time the bigger cows inevitably go and work their way out of the herd but in their time on farm we see the hidden cost of keeping them over winter. Outwintering a mob of 50 cows we see a massive difference of just 5 big cows amongst them. They are much harder on the ground, they make more mud, impact soil structure far more and you are paying for that impact not just in winter but in the following growing season as well.
Slower progress towards soil health and sward development cost you every year. If you want bigger calves - it's better to use an easy-calving terminal bull (see No. 1 above).
Our cows
Fertile
Maternal
Long lived
Large rumen capacity – excellent forage converters
Perfect udders
Strong feet and legs
Good temperament
PROFITABLE
Our bulls
Fertile
Long lived
Moderate frame size of high quality
Excellent forage converters
PROFITABLE
So what are the 5 biggest missed opportunities people make with Regenerative Suckler cows?
Still weaning/feeding like it's a conventional system
Why continue with practices that you no longer need when they cost you money? One of the biggest costs we have with suckler cows is housing them over winter. Whether you outwinter all winter or you manage to cut 2 months off your winter housing time it is a big saving using regenerative practices to cut the costs of winter.
Another big cost is early weaning. If you are aiming to save on wintering costs but then you wean calves in Autumn (some still creep feeding) to winter inside on expensive high protein feed then you are contradicting yourself.
Dairy cows have to milk for 300 days and only have 60 days off. They are worked much harder. How have we got to a place where suckler cows milk for 200 days and have the winter off?
A cow should carry her calf through to weaning at 10 months or she isn't really working for you. If she can't do that then you have the wrong cow for a low-input system.
I know there are never two farms the same but I do think all of these are easy wins for any suckler business aiming at reducing costs.
What do you think? Let us know and we can include your comments in a future post.
“After visiting Rob and seeing how he manages his grass and testing his genetics, I was very keen to purchase some of his cattle. I didn’t need to see them, I just put an order in of what I wanted, and Rob did the rest. It’s very reassuring when you find a breeder who really knows his cattle and can be trusted to send you exactly what you want. We will be purchasing more in the future.”
Geraint Powell
Nuffield Scholar
We bought 2 bulls from Rob because we wanted easy calving, fertile, hardy bulls. Very happy with initial results on 62 heifers with 100% in calf, 73% bred in the 1st cycle. Bulls didn't go lame or lose condition while working
Oliver Chedgey
2022 Organic Dairy Farmer of the Year
We have PHEPSON ANGUS bulls available from January 2025
Please get in touch if you would like more information about available bulls. We have sold out for the last 3 years so please get in touch early to secure your breeding bull.
Free Consultancy
We often get requests for consultancy on both grassland and cattle management in holistic management systems. While we do take on some advisory work in limited situations we do tend to try and sign-post to other advisers in the regenerative agriculture sector. However, ALL PHEPSON ANGUS CUSTOMERS receive a FREE consultation with their purchase and for our customers we are always available on the phone. So if you are interested in saving money through your grazing systems and would like to add some proven fertility genetics to your herd then get in touch.
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